We may be able to upgrade it - I can't remember off the top of my head. Please send us an email as others have mentioned. JCink boards use a *heavily* customized setup, but if the database structure is still the same as a regular IP.Board, we can upgrade that. If it's customized too heavily however it may not be possible.

We offer two different ways to obtain IP.Board: A self-hosted license, which you run on your own server, and monthly hosted community plans, which we host for you. Both of these options include the license key. Our hosted plans start at just $10 per month and are a very affordable way to start your own community. You can view our plans at https://www.invisionpower.com/pricing

Right now, IP.Board is the "Core" application - it is a required component. It contains member management and other functions that our other applications need.

Starting with Social Suite 4.0, IP.Board will no longer be the "Core" - there will be a "core" application that handles everything. So, for example, if you just want IP.Blog, you would buy the Core and IP.Blog, instead of buying IP.Board ("the core") and IP.Blog. You'll only need to buy the components you need and want. :)

Keep in mind that, as long as your license is active, product updates are free of charge. If you buy IP.Board now, you can update later on without having to buy a new license. :thumbsup:

This is exactly why we don't publish release dates. We are free to continue working on it until, as others have said, it is ready. Not rushed to release on schedule or disappoint when we miss a schedule. We release when it's ready. :thumbsup:

When you create a client account with us, our SSO system automatically creates a community forums account as well. Additionally, many users will register here to download applications and hooks, but never post. The spam service is very effective at catching spam. :thumbsup:

I'm not sure I fully understand this question. Our suite has always been available in a self-hosted, licensed version: http://www.invisionpower.com/pricing :thumbsup:
If you're referring to when IP.Board will no longer be the "core" component, that will be with IPS Social Suite 4.0. There is no ETA at this time.

IP.Chat is a bit of a strange case with the way renewals work, because it is a hosted subscription service.

With our other applications, we're not able to offer pro-rated renewals because of the way it could easily be manipulated - you "reactivate" a product for $1 with a week left in your billing cycle, download the latest version, and then deactivate it. In order to prevent users from trying to game the renewals like this, we've set it up so that, if you choose not to renew a product for it's standard cycle, when you renew it next, you're basically "catching it up" to the suite's expiration date, and as such, it does not extend the suite's renewal date, nor is it prorated. In the case of IP.Chat, typically I am able to prorate the invoice, or just renew you a week early, since IP.Chat is a hosted service. For our other products, however, we unfortunately aren't able to offer prorated renewals due to the ease of which that could be abused.

There's a much longer topic about this issue over at which should clear up any confusion and explain in further detail why renewals work the way they do.

If you had a standard license, then yes, you can reactivate it for $25 for 6 months of support, services, and downloads. Other legacy license types had different renewal terms. It's best to shoot us an email and we can gladly look into your old account and give you specifics. You can contact us via our website at http://www.invisionpower.com/contact

Zend and Ioncube are both free to install. Zend has to be installed by your host / at the root level - Ioncube is something you can run locally.

Everything in our suite except for IP.Nexus has editable non-obfuscated code - IP.Nexus is the only app in our suite that is obfuscated. This is done for security and protection. It's an application that handles with financial matters, such as credit card numbers, billing details, and so on. Security precautions, hashing systems, and other such details are obfuscated for the protection of users. There is zero* encoded code in IPB or any of our other applications in the self-hosted Licensed version. Lots of other products that have similar functions as IP.Nexus also have obfuscated source code.

For further questions or concerns about IP.Nexus being encoded, I would suggest referring to these topics:

*Technically there are a few things that use base64 encoding which does hide the code a bit but this isn't really encoding - it's easily decoded and does not really count. One of them is a random number generator I believe and the other is an Easter egg.

I sent it to the OP for some feedback first. I'm not sure what the laws dictate are required and how it should work, so I'm going to wait on the OP first. However, all its just an ACP setting for Impressum (like board rules) and an extra page to display them.

Yeah, I'm growing tired of it after 2 episodes. I normally watch Amazing Race (Love that show!) but figured I would give survivor a shot. I got bored last week after they spent 20 minutes arguing over socks. ZZzzz...